first of all, i really want to say thank you for the responses on my last question regarding the costume. i printed them all, and it really helped me to understand my brother!
now that i guess the initial surprise of having just been diagnosed has passed, we're dealing with a lot of issues from school...the teachers were understanding and flexible for all of one week (lol, how quickly the sympathy fades!)
my brother is still in regular classes because, as you can guess, his case isn't that severe (considering it took 14 years to actually get the right diagnosis...9 of which he has been labeled "adhd"). however, getting him to do homework is an absolute crisis that usually ends with my mother and i cutting pictures from magazines and typing book reports while he is pretending his hands are airplanes next to us!*
*-he's done this for years, but he has recently learned to control it around other people
the school doesn't seem to know what to do with him...i get the feeling, "he's yours, you figure it out". as for now, he's only in middle school, but i worry how this will turn out in the high school years. bullying isn't an issue anymore because he is mostly looked up to by his peers (he's older, and that means everything!), but the workload itself...he's a genius, he just can't seem to bring himself to actually do his homework. it seems like he would benefit best from honors classes (at least math/science), but when it comes to language arts, we just can't keep guiding him (read: writing his papers!!) to this extent!
can anyone offer suggestions on this subject? any advice is appreciated as always! :)
Would failure bother him? If you were to stop with the excessive assistences in homework, would he fail all of his classes or just some of them?Problems with homework are just about universal. Sometimes it's because assignments are too open-ended (like book reports), other times it's because kids with autism want a clear distinction between home and school. Study hall is sometimes the answer. Other times it's changing the demands (qualitative or quantitative), aka accommodations.
Here's my collection of homework resource links, with ideas about accommodations, behavior contracts, etc.
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19740&am p;KW=homework+resources
Good luck with everything!
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/svpst/files/links/July_07_ASD_book let.pdf
This is a link to a new initiative in Australia i believe. But it applies anywhere.
It has alot of great information about mainstreaming for teachers.
Problems with homework are just about universal. Sometimes it's because assignments are too open-ended (like book reports), other times it's because kids with autism want a clear distinction between home and school. Study hall is sometimes the answer. Other times it's changing the demands (qualitative or quantitative), aka accommodations.
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You are so on the money! My son always says that school is to do work and home is for relaxing
yes, we've actually tried that route. and it upsets him tremendously, but he still can't figure out how to actually *do* the homework.
those links are great!!